Final 2017 calendar avoids Le Mans clash, Germany missing

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The final version of the 2017 F1 calendar sees a clash avoided with Le Mans but has lost the German Grand Prix from the original schedule.

As was the case in 2016, the first draft of the calendar saw the European Grand Prix in Baku scheduled to take place on the same day as the Le Mans 24 Hours. However, following a request from the Baku race organisers, the race - renamed the Azerbaijan Grand Prix - has now been pushed back by a week to avoid a clash and also prevent a repeat of the difficult Canada-Azerbaijan back-to-back of this year.

With the race in Baku being pushed back a week, the following rounds in Austria, Great Britain and Hungary also do the same. This is facilitated by the German Grand Prix dropping off the calendar altogether, with Hungary now the last race before the summer break on July 30.

In the latter part of the season, tweaks to the previous draft see Singapore host the first flyaway race after the Italian Grand Prix, with a two-week gap before Malaysia and Japan as was the case this season.

Further tweaks also mirror this year's calendar with the United States and Mexico once again becoming a back-to-back pairing before the Brazilian Grand Prix, which is confirmed following doubts earlier this year. The season will finish with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 26.

The calendar was ratified during a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Vienna on Wednesday.

The final calendar for 2017 is as follows:

Round	Race	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne)	26 March
2	Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai)	9 April
3	Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir)	16 April
4	Russian Grand Prix (Sochi)	30 April
5	Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)	14 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo)	28 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal)	11 June
8	Azerbaijan Grand Prix (Baku)	25 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix (Spielberg)	9 July
10	British Grand Prix (Silverstone)	16 July
11	Hungarian Grand Prix (Budapest)	30 July
12	Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps)	27 August
13	Italian Grand Prix (Monza)	3 September
14	Singapore Grand Prix (Marina Bay)	17 September
15	Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang)	2 October
16	Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka)	9 October
17	United States Grand Prix (Austin)	22 October
18	Mexican Grand Prix (Mexico City)	29 October
19	Brazilian Grand Prix (Interlagos)	12 November
20	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Yas Marina)	26 November

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.